Need help on coffee distribution experiment.

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Curios Peter
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#1: Post by Curios Peter »

I recentily read the article about particle size distributions of ground coffee (Particle size distributions of ground coffee and also Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis of ground coffee). In this second article RapidCoffee proposes:
RapidCoffee wrote:The large particles appear rounder (more spherical) on the conical grinders, and more irregularly shaped on the flat burr Super Jolly. This could be a consequence of the longer grinding path in a conical burr grinder. After the initial fracturing, the 400-500um particles might still suffer glancing blows from the rotating burrs. These secondary blows could knock off small irregular protrusions, creating fines (small particles) while rounding the large particle shape. A longer grinding path would lead to more of this behavior, and so we might expect conical grinders to produce rounder large particles and more fines than flat burr grinders.
And after reading about WDT distribution and how this affect on coffee i was thinking maybe those particles in different sizes and shapes could affect tamping and the taste of the coffee. I thought that if we could maybe concentrate those particles what the effect could be in the taste. And i come up with a experiment. Maybe we could concentrate those big particles in the center of the filter basket by using the "Brazilian nut effect" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxwxN3YLMr0 ) just by putting the basket on some vibrating surface. Fortunately the dentists use those for dental impression ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMz6gBKjly4 ). They are very cheap. And i propose the following questions. Does it taste any different from a normal WDT technique. Does by using this technique it taste any different from a grinder that produce large round particles them a grinder that produce uneven large ground particles?

Maybe we could end up with an alternative to WDT method. Or maybe im just being dumb. I dont have the tasting skills to pull it off for myself and any help from the more experienced member would help.

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RapidCoffee
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#2: Post by RapidCoffee »

Folks have tried vibrating mixers before (e.g., see here and here). I don't believe any scientific studies have been performed to analyze the results, but it seems likely that vibration might help with distribution problems. Extrapolating from the behavior of nut or sand mixtures to ground coffee, however, is a real stretch.
John

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HB
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#3: Post by HB »

Here's a few other discussions:

Dental Vibrator and clumping
Dental vibrator for espresso grounds?

And a loosely related thread:

Spinning for distribution?

That said, I think the better answer is addressed by the grinder, not post-distribution. Adding a fluffer to electronic Mazzers? and Flour Sifter for espresso grounds? raise this point; I've seen it applied to other grinders, e.g., the "declump-inator" improvement to the Nuova Simonelli Mythos grinder.


From Friday mornings at Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, NC
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